


The Electric Sleep

by AdorableDoom



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Background Relationships, Canonical Character Death, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-22
Updated: 2016-02-22
Packaged: 2018-05-22 16:24:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6086575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AdorableDoom/pseuds/AdorableDoom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For better or worse, R2 remembers and waits.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Electric Sleep

**Author's Note:**

> Major spoilers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

        "It's not that I mind, really I don't," Jessika added quickly, probably too quickly to be even remotely believable but it was worth a shot. "It's just . . . ." I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. There's nothing in the galaxy more boring than droid duty. "Think there are other things I could be doing that would be more vital to the Resistance."  
      Thankfully, General Organa chuckled faintly at that. "Nice save Pava but droid duty is important to the Resistance and I can't think of anyone better suited for that honor," she said with what Jessika thought might have been a grin though it vanished so quickly she couldn't be sure. Jessika struggled (and probably failed) to keep the disappointment off her face. Still         Jessika knew when she had lost and nodded, taking up her datapad with a sigh. "Yes ma'am." General Organa patted Jessika on the shoulder as she started past to another part of the base. Probably to do something that actually mattered. Maybe next month she could convince Poe or Snap to switch with her. Poe would probably be her best bet. His droid probably had its own bed beside his bunk.  
       "Don't forget about R2," General Organa said over her shoulder, inclining her head at the little blue and silver astromech droid that had sat unresponsive in a corner for as long as Jessika could remember. Longer than that even she suspected. It seemed a waste of time to Jessika. The droid had been in low power mode Gods only knew how long and even if it wasn't, it was so old Jessika doubted it would even functional anymore.  
Something on her face must've shown because General Organa paused and returned to stand beside the droid, lying a hand atop it. Jessika opened her mouth to apologize because the look on the General's face made her own heart ache in sympathy.  "He might not look like much these days," she said after a moment, "but this little droid is very important. We might not be standing here today if it wasn't for him." Jessika glanced once more at the dusty little droid but found herself unable to picture it as anything other than just that.  
      General Organa smiled then though it was a sad sort of smile that didn't reach her eyes. "I promised my brother I'd look after him and I intend to keep that promise." Jessika could only stare at the General in open mouthed shock, struggling to process what she'd just heard. "This is your broth. . . this is Luke Sky. . .this is Commander Skywalker's droid?" she said in awe, staring at the droid as if she was seeing it for the first time. Luke Skywalker's droid.  
       The one that had smuggled the plans for the first Death Star to the then fledgling rebellion. If this droid could talk Jessika could only imagine the stories it could tell. General Organa patted the little droid fondly, almost affectionately. "It was, still is I suppose," she said. Jessika shook her head, still not quite able to believe what she was hearing.  
"What happened to it?" she asked. Jessika knew enough about droids to know that they usually didn't just shut themselves down like that. The General shook her head regretfully, "I wish I knew."

  
       Master Luke leaned down so that they were nearly the same height the same way Mistress Padme had always done when she spoke to him. He was smiling which indicated he was happy though R2's sensors indicated that he had not slept in several cycles which should mean he needed to power down rather than be happy. In his arms he held a small bundle of soft looking clothes which he presented to R2. Nearly obscured by the clothes was a sleeping human child approximately 12 standard hours old. She was so small.  
     Too small.  
     Organic beings were fragile to begin with but when they were this size the danger of injury was magnified significantly. He would need to watch her carefully. Babies, he recalled, needed constant and careful observation in order to be kept safe. "R2, this is Rey," Master Luke said happily. The child stirred in his arms but did not awaken. Master Luke laughed as R2 beeped and squawked his own happiness.  
    //Hello Rey!//  
    //Welcome Rey!//

  
   "What do you thinks wrong with it?"  
    "Maybe it misses him, Skywalker, I mean."  
     Jessika rolled her eyes at Snap as they made their way past the droid which stood as still and silent as always. "C'mon Snap, I expect that from Poe but come on it's just a droid." Even as she said the words, Jessika found herself casting a half guilty glance over her shoulder at the droid. No movement, no sign it had even registered her presence. "What you don't think droids can develop bonds with their masters?" Snap said.  
     Jessika shrugged, "I guess I never thought about it before." "They can," he assured her, sounding so certain it's almost enough to convince her. Jessika rolled her eyes, "You sound like Dameron." Snap laughed at that, "Well, he's right. Sometimes. Not often but you know, every once in awhile." Now it was Jessika's turn to laugh.  
"Don't tell him that."

  
     In his review of his memory banks, R2 had forgotten how loud human children could be. Rey had started crying the moment she had opened her eyes that morning and had not stopped. He recalled human babies did this sometimes. Mistress Padme, he recalled, had once done so for three days. He does not tell Master Luke this because he and Captain Antilles looked as if they were about to short circuit themselves.  
     R2 could relate.  
     He made his way into Master Luke and Captain Antilles's quarters where they kept Rey's much smaller bed beside their own. The screaming grew considerably louder the closer he got, the sound nearly overloading his sensors. Captain Antilles was currently rocking the screaming baby but to no avail while Master Luke tried to sleep. In a few hours their positions would be reversed, he knew. R2 came to a stop beside Captain Antilles's feet, beeping softly at the baby.  
   //Don't cry Rey.//  
  //Please don't cry.//  
  But like most everyone with exception of his Master, she didn't understand him. In spite of his exhaustion, Captain Antilles managed a faint smile at the droid. "Thanks for trying R2," he said gratefully. He looked ready to fall over and Master Luke wasn't faring much better. And Rey showed no signs of stopping any time soon. At a loss, R2 searched his databanks once more and found that babies of many species it seemed enjoyed things that move in intriguing circular motions.  
   A few quick searches and commands later and the swirling novas and constellations of Corellia filled the ceiling above their heads, turning the small space above into a simmering galaxy. Captain Antilles stared up at the no doubt familiar stars in something like fond awe for several long moments before he realized the room was finally silent. Rey now laid peacefully in her father's arms, cooing and reaching up for the swirling stars. Captain Antilles looked from the now silent baby in his arms to the droid at his feet projecting the stars onto the ceiling, looking torn between wanting to cry himself or laugh outright.      "Wedge?" Master Luke murmured sleepily.  
"I'm going to kiss your droid."  
R2 squeaked indigently.

    The next time Jessika had droid duty, BB-8 was already waiting at R2's side, beeping softly. The little droid waited almost patiently for a response after each beep but of course there was none to be had. BB-8 inclined their head in a way that seemed to Jessika was almost disappointed, sad even. They beeped again, more instantly this time and waited once more. Jessika's heart went out to the little droid.  
    In spite of her dislike of pulling droid duty and teasing of Poe, Jessika did like BB-8. How could you not like BB-8? And seeing the little droid trying so hard to get a response from the prone droid filled her with a pang of sadness. Especially when it rolled forward and lightly nudged the older droid. "Don't take it personally little guy," Jessika said, patting the droid atop its spherical head.  
    "I don't think this guy has said much of anything in a long time." BB-8 beeped up at her almost inquisitively but as Jessika didn't understand binary she could only shrug. "I don't know pal," she said, kneeling down beside the little droid to plug her datapad into the old astromech and run a diagnostic scan. Either Luke Skywalker or General Organa had taken excellent care of the droid. In spite of the fact that it hadn't moved in decades, all of its systems seemed to be more than capable of functioning.  
   "Do you love Poe?" Jessika found herself asking which was utterly ridiculous for a myriad of reasons not the least of which being that she didn't speak binary so even if the droid understood her she wouldn't be able to-- BB-8 beeped in what she could only call the affirmative, spinning around her almost happily. Jessika smiled fondly at the sweet little droid before looking almost sadly at the immobile droid docked before her. She reached up and patted the cool metal lightly, almost apologetically.

  
   "Hurry R2! We have to get away from Hoth before it explodes!"  
   Ben sighed heavily and rolled his eyes. That was his preferred method of communication these days though much less so with Rey than with anyone else. "That's not what happened Rey," he said. R2 beeped and whistled in agreement. //He's right. I was there.//  
   She knew it too. It was one of her favorite stories. Rey just grinned from her perch atop R2 who was an X-Wing today. Soon she would be to big for him to do so but for now he was more than willing to play the part. "It's just pretend, pretend can be anything," she explained, "right R2?"  
    The droid whistled. //Right.// Although he could not see given that she was currently atop him, R2 knew Rey was grinning. "R2 says I'm right," she told her cousin smugly. Ben rolled his eyes again but R2 detected a faint hint of smile on his face before he hid it quickly beneath a look of annoyance.  
   "Of course he does, he's your droid," Ben countered. "Yep!" Rey laughed and learned forward to wrap her arms around R2, small hands and arms obscuring his sensors though he didn't mind much. He was her droid and she was his Rey.

  
    Apart from General Organa and BB-8 (and Jessika herself) the only constant visitor R2-D2 had was General Organa's very knowledgable and sometimes REALLY, REALLY irritating (seriously who in the hell programmed a droid to be like that?) protocol droid who seemed to stop by nearly everyday as far as Jessika could tell, trying to goad the smaller droid into arguments. Which would have been funny if it wasn't so utterly heartbreaking. "Was. . .Is he a friend of yours?" Jessika asked one day after she'd been grounded with a broken wrist after particularly nasty crash landing curtesy of a TIE fighter. "Oh yes! R2 have known each other for well, quite a long time," the golden droid explained. "We have been eyewitnesses to many momentous events!"  
    Jessika could only imagine and although she was tempted to ask she knew that once the droid started talking it was nearly impossible to get him to stop. "How long has he been like this?" she asked. The golden droid considered this. "About 14 standard years now Miss Pava," the droid said heavily. 14 years? Had it really been that long?  
She considered it for a moment and decided that it must've been. And yet that seemed almost unbelievable to her. Jessika shook her head, settling on a crate near the droids. "What do you think happened?" she wondered though Jessika wasn't sure if she was actually asking the droid or if she was thinking aloud. Not that she expected an answer either way.  
    "Grief I expect Ms. Pava," the protocol droid said, "I understand that it can often make life forms act irrationally. And I've always suspected R2 at least to some degree blamed himself for Master Luke going away." Jessika felt a sudden, sharp stab of pity for the droids beside her. The galaxy had lost Luke Skywalker but they had lost a friend.

  
    He remembered when Padme was born and he remembered when she died. They had carried her body through the streets of the capital she had once called home before lying her to rest beside the lake. She had liked to play there as a child, had spent a good deal of time chasing him around the grassy shore. A shore she would never see again. He had understood it.  
Organic life forms are not immortal. Nothing in the galaxy is. Even droids could be destroyed or have their programming erased. He understood that. He had survived enough wars and battles to understand that.  
   Logically, R2 knows that Rey is gone. That's what all the humans around him keep saying. They don't say dead. They don't say murdered although both of these things are as true as the first. Gone.  
Rey is gone and logically he knows this.  
He had seen the temple and the place his Master had called home engulfed in flames. His scanners indicated that the temperature was too high for anyone to have survived. He had seen the bodies of his Master's students who looked so small in death. R2 had seen this and logically he knew that Rey was dead. But that did not make the information any easier to process.  
    Captain Antilles was gone now too.  
    And General Solo.  
    R2 whistled softly at his Master. //When will they be back?// Master Luke for the first time in R2's substantial memory had not answered him. He had not said much since the massacre at the temple. Massacre.  
That's what Princess . . . General Organa had called it.  
   Ben was gone too but not in the same way.  
   Ben who Rey had loved.  
   Ben who had killed her.  
   R2 is not surprised when Master Luke takes his leave. They were all leaving now in one form or another. And for the first time, R2 does not go with him. Master Luke leaned down the way he always did, lying his mechanical hand atop R2's domed head. In spite of his sister's efforts he had not eaten nor had he slept although she hadn't either.  
   "Look after Leia for me okay?" he said, his voice horse from disuse. R2 beeped mournfully in agreement and then whistled a question he feared he already knew the answer to. //When will you be back?// Again his Master had no answer though his silence seemed to speak volumes. And then Master Luke was gone too.  
"Don't worry R2," C3-PO had tried to reassure him, "I'm sure Master Luke will be back soon." Expect R2 knew better. Master Luke was gone. Rey was gone. They were all gone now. 

 

     Poe was dead.  
     That's what they kept saying. Poe was dead and the map to Luke Skywalker, if it had even existed had either been destroyed or was now in the hands of the First Order. "We'll leave at first light," Snap had decided, "whatever they say, we're going back to Jakku. We're gonna find Poe." Jessika admired that, that unshakable certainty that Poe had somehow survived and that they could somehow bring him home. She wished she was that certain.  
     Jessika had found herself wandering the winding hallways of the base, not quite realizing what she was doing or even where she was going until she found herself face to face with the familiar blue and silver astromech that once belonged to Luke Skywalker that was stuck forever waiting for someone who might not ever return. She sat down on the cool metal ground, leaning back to let the small but solid droid support her weight. This was war, people died in war, empirically Jessika knew that. Poe had been her friend. Her friend was gone and it hurt so damn much that she didn't know what to do.  
    "It's not your fault you know," she found herself telling the droid. Her voice sounded thick even to her own ears and Jessika scrubbed at her eyes to keep the tears from falling although there was no one around to see. "Whatever happened, I'm sure you did your best and I'm sure wherever your Master is he knows that." Silence. Jessika made no attempt to stop her tears now, instead she drew her knees up to her chest and let them fall freely.  
  


  
  


 

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a HORRIBLY sad headcanon a friend sent me. Thanks Mary. Title inspired by Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? one of my favorite books of all time.


End file.
